WORKS OF HEART: RIVERGLASS CUSTOMS

By Leigh Sharps

Jeff Leblanc, of Campton, a veteran woodworker, turned his interest to a new form of woodworking just a few years ago.

A fairly new addition to the art world is the distinctive and beautiful craft of combining resin and wood into creative and visually appealing pieces of functional art. This is now LeBlanc’s focus: “I’ll be going into my fourth year of working with the combination of resin and wood, so I’m still quite new to the medium. I’ve been familiar with power tools and woodworking for much longer, so all of that is helpful because they play a large part throughout the process. I started using resin just to modify a piece of driftwood I had on hand, and from there each project seemed to get larger,” said LeBlanc.

“Resin art has certainly grown in recent years,” he continued, “but five years ago this was certainly not on my radar. I’ve been selling art for the better part of 20 years whether it be in the form of tattooing, painting or the occasional tee shirt design.”

Natural resin (from the Greek word meaning ‘resin of the pine) has been around for thousands of years. Early evidence says civilizations found resin in the barks of trees, herbal flowers and shrub buds and fashioned it to make weapons. It forms when bark is damaged in some way. When resin was combined with other natural materials it was used in the construction of houses and temples by the ancient Greeks who also used it as an antiseptic for oral health. The Mayans boiled sap from resin to use as glue and gave it to their children for chewing gum. Resin from the spruce trees is what we now call chewing gum.

But synthetic/chemical and compound resins used today have only been around since the 1930s. A German chemist, Paul Schlack, patented epoxy resin in 1934. There were other claims to the process too, one being from Swiss chemist Pierre Castan, and he became a pioneer developing epoxy resins alongside Schlack.

Castan used epoxy resin, at first, for items like dental prosthetics and then went on to use it, and combinations of it, for varnish and adhesive purposes. In the 40s and 50s epoxy resin became popular in industrial uses and became popular in the art world around the same time.

LeBlanc finds his resins, pigments and dyes all on-line. He describes his creative process: “It starts with a decision as to what species of lumber I want to use and what it is I want to make (tables, cribbage boards, cutting boards, benches, etc.) Then a form is constructed to roughly finished size. Before I do the pouring into the form there are choices to make of colored powdered pigments or translucent dyes depending on the desired effect I want to achieve. Much of my work has embedded items (coins, etc.) in them, or water/waves, so the pouring goes in multiple stages to give the appearance of depth. The end of the process breaks down to the sizing, shaping and lots of sanding.”

The initial ideas for his craft he said, “usually comes from finding a piece of wood that some would call ‘throwaway’, ‘junk’ or what would normally end up in the burn pile. I lean towards the ugly, not so desirable wood to some, with the hopes of giving that piece of wood a second life as a functional art. All the wood I use for my projects are acquired from local lumber yards. Sharps Lumber on Squam Lake is a quality spot I often use, and I go to a couple of old school mill guys that don’t really advertise to the public but tend to have some unique pieces that I try to persuade them to part with.”

What he likes making the most are charcuterie/serving boards “because I usually do them in batches of multiples using a single design, but each one has a unique color. I’ve found that having various colors of the same pattern makes the buying decision easier for people since they tend to favor particular colors, or they gift them knowing the recipient is a fan of a certain color. These tend to be the items that sell the best.”

LeBlanc enjoys doing commission pieces because “the client can give me their thoughts and input right from the start which helps me because, for the most part, with resin, you only get one shot to achieve effect, rather than having the ability to add some extra brushstrokes to correct/manipulate a canvas with paint.”

LeBlanc believed when he was growing up, he might become a guitarist for ‘Skid Row’ (a rock group). “Though I’m still holding out hope and waiting for that call (and, oh, I can’t play guitar) I will continue, until then, to play around with this unforgiving medium, and I am focusing on new styles of working resin in different ways.”

You may see LeBlanc’s this fall work at Vintage Market at the Cottage Place on Rte. 3, Little Squam Lake May 7-8. The public is welcome to visit his studio/gallery on Ellsworth Hill to view his craft (after contacting him), to chat about a future commission or for further information.

Contact info.: Instagram at riverglass_jeffrey_; Facebook at Art/Riverglass-Customs or call him at 603-726-0396.

References: Wikipedia: The History of Resin and the Untold Story of Resin Art.